Come to think of it, I should just stop writing (non-)resolution posts altogether and stick to wishing everyone a happy new year. Happy New Year! And a belated Merry Christmas as well. In 2023 I put gaming in the back seat while I focused on getting my financial house in order, so to speak, but I still played a lot of gacha games. I even managed to finish Shin Megami Tensei V on December 31st, more on that in the near future. Please remind me if I forget.
There were plenty of ups and downs in 2023, but in the end I did manage to get some financial ducks in a row. More or less. At the very least I identified some leaks and plugged some holes – and incidentally realized that gaming makes up a miniscule amount of my total spending every year. This makes it totally okay to buy more games so I did get a few things over the holidays (mostly puzzle games). But really I have so many already that it doesn’t make sense to waste money on titles I probably won’t play this year.
So what WILL I play this year? On reflection, apart from my usual gacha fare, I do have a few games I want to either finish or delete for good in 2024.
– Romancing Saga 2: I started it earlier this year and found it really boring, but after playing Romancing Saga Re;Universe a little longer, I got curious about the origins of some of my best characts like Noel, Rocbouquet and Gerard, so I got back into it after finishing SMT V. It’s growing on me…ish.
– Undernauts: I played it for a while and got annoyed by the direction the story was taking, but now I can’t even remember what the problem was, so it should be safe to go back now.
– Final Fantasy XIII: I’ve been struggling to play it for too long. It’s time to put up or shut up. If I don’t manage to successfully play it, or if I can’t even bring myself to try it by December 2024, I’m going to uninstall and delete it and never look back.
– Tokyo Xanadu eX+: Similar situation to FFXIII except I started playing it some years ago and made it quite far before dropping it. But I really like the battle system, so I started a fresh game. And dropped that too. If it’s not finished by December 2024, into the “was nice knowing ya” bin it goes.
– Atelier Lydie & Scumbag: I get a bit irritated every time I see the icon on my desktop. Also it’s been a while since I played an Atelier game, so I might as well. I’ve lost some of my passion for the series, but I still like crafting games, so I should be able to enjoy this as long as I don’t take it too seriously.
Checking last year’s resolutions, it seems I achieved 50% of what I’d said I would do gaming-wise: I beat Episode 4 10-10 of Epic Seven, but I didn’t touch Xenoblade Chronicles 3 all year. I’m not even adding to my “play or delete” list because I don’t want to do either. Apparently the $29.99 DLC extension is good, but bluntly speaking, I can’t see how that would possibly be the case. I loved exploring the various areas of XC3, but everything else… Anyway, we can talk about it in more detail if I ever finish it.
But back to my real New Year’s resolutions, i.e. the non-gaming stuff. Having focused on finances in 2023, in 2024 I want to think about my health. First off, I must stop my waistline from expanding further!! The four cakes and two tubs of ice cream in December did not help, but, I mean, it was Christmas, yeah? But Christmas is over, and it’s time to return to common sense. And just generally try to be more physically active in 2024. All of my hobbies like music, reading, gaming etc. are very sedentary, and now that I’m <a certain age>, I’m starting to feel the effects of too much sitting and lying around.
In practical terms, things shouldn’t change too much except I’ll try to stand/stretch/walk for a while after every hour of sitting or lying down, which will interrupt many a gaming session but them’s the breaks. In theory, gacha games on the mobile phone should be quite conducive to standing up and stretching, doing a few squats or jogging in place while waiting for something to finish… not that I would know because I’ve never tried. Also I play most of my gacha on emulator now anyway… this isn’t looking good ^^; But I’ll give it my best shot!
Okay, that’s enough posting for one day. Time for a stretch break and then I have some characters to gear in Epic Seven. The grind never ends! Happy New Year!
